The stairway up to the attic space was painted a dark brown color. It looked dark and uninviting. The first step was to remove the friction strips and rough sand the surface. I didn’t remove the paint completely, just enough so the primer would adhere well. I counter sunk the nails and filled in the holes.
I applied two coats of Kilz primer and caulked the gaps between the steps. An unintended consequence, or rather benefit, was eliminating the creeks each time we went up. It’s now nearly silent.
One big lesson learned was to check the paint before doing all of it. I painted the first coat carefully, cutting in the edges and sealing all the gaps. Unfortunately, the yellow we had matched turned out almost neon. It glowed, in a bad way.
We tried another yellow we had in stock and had to put two more coats to cover up the neon yellow.
Our next plan is to find a carpet runner to complete the stairs. The old stairs were really steep. Painting it didn’t change the dimensions of the stairway, but it did create a more welcoming walkway up to our attic bedroom.